Anthropic's Claude makes it to PCs

Move over, ChatGPT, you’re not the only chatbot to invade the PC space! Just a few months after OpenAI released its desktop application, another California-based AI company followed suit. Anthropic launched the official Claude desktop app. It’s available for Windows and Mac.

In case you don’t know what Claude is, it’s one of the major competitors to ChatGPT and Gemini. Just like those two platforms, Claude has different models of varying capabilities. There’s the Sonnet model and the Haiku model. You can use the former model for free on the dedicated website. Haiku, on the other hand, requires a paid membership.

Claude now has a desktop app

Just recently, Anthropic announced that Claude now has the ability to perform actions on your computer by itself. Well, the desktop app doesn’t grant Claude that ability. What it does is give users a quick and easy way to access the chatbot. Just like the smartphone app, it provides a simple interface that lets you use the chatbot.

Claude’s interface isn’t very different from most other chatbot interfaces. The star of the show is the text field. You’ll see your conversation fill the screen as you write.

If you don’t have anything in the text field, you’ll see various other UI elements floating around. Right under the text field, you’ll see your recent conversations. The app will show up to six recent conversations unless you click on the View all button.

In between the text field and the recent conversations, you’ll see recent updates and news regarding Claude. Each bit of news will sit in a rounded rectangular button, and they’ll be stacked on one another. If you click on one of them, then you’ll be taken to a webpage on your default browser.

Just like most other chatbots, there’s a panel on the left of the screen that will list your recent conversations and let you access your account settings. To see your account settings, click on your name at the bottom of the panel.

Up top, you’ll see the menu that will have the File, Edit, View, and Help sections (if you’re using the Windows application). Clicking on the Settings button from the File menu will let you change the keyboard shortcut. This shortcut will summon a little floating text field.

The application is available for free. You’ll have to sign in to use it, but you’ll be able to use it even if you’re a free user.